In the book, time has stopped, however, life goes on. Children have forgotten to grow up and robots have forgotten who built them. There is general dis-ease in the community, as these lack of understandings have driven the human children and the robots away from one another.
It’s not until the community is visited by a down-pouring of Dapper Men that things begin to change. One Dapper Man, designated “41,” brings about the epiphany of the importance of time to the characters, and they find that their destinies are even dependent on time.
Can comics as a medium escape a dependency on chronos, everyday chronological time? Or, does the medium already achieve this more readily than other media? Do comics actually operate in a hybrid between chronos and kairos, in aevum?
Over in the Comic Book Resources discussion forums, the poster dubbed “USERNAME TAKEN” questioned religious representation in superhero comics — “If comics are to truly represent an increasingly diverse society, why aren’t there more religious heroes in comics.” The prompt has triggered nearly 100 responses in just over one week, including those from both sides of the divide, whether there is or there is not adequate religious representation in superhero comics.
Are, as poster Kieran_Frost says, comics readers “much more accepting of race, gender and sexuality [and likely…] more accepting of religion in characters, at-least more tolerant than many are assuming?”
On his blog, Rabbi Yair Robinson attempts to compile an initial list of comics and comics works related to Judaism. While admittedly “incomplete” and “imperfectly” done, it merits mention for its construction by an active clergyman looking at portrayals of his own faith in the medium. In addition to comics titles, he cites prose works like Arie Kaplan’s From Krakow to Krypton as essential reading (though one can read Kaplan’s own version of this overview, as well).
Other sites, such as Jewish Comics, have made similar attempts, but few seem to give mentions to works like Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe run or American Flagg. It’s incomplete, imperfect, and worth your consideration.
The Lifelong Learning Academy will present a lecture on Thursday, June 21, at 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Village, 1075 Old Harrisburg Road, Gettysburg. Dr. Carey Moore, retired Professor of Religion at Gettysburg College, will speak about “Religion and Comic Strips.”
Dr. Moore was a major contributor to the Anchor Bible Series and is purportedly a lifelong reader of comic strips.
Earlier today, I received word that the ePUB generator/distributor I had selected to try and distribute my book through conventional channels, had rejected The Infidel #1 as violating their “terms of service.” As you’ll see, if they rejected #1, they would certainly reject #2, and so I’ve decided to go ahead and make it available myself, through pdf download, as I did with #1. This means you can be reading it in mere minutes. Even though ePUB offers the advantage of panel isolation, note that you will still be able to read this pdf on many of the popular ebook readers. I viewed it myself on my iPad through iBooks and it looks great. This issue is 22 story pages, in full color, for $3.00.
It may not be surprising that the title was not cleared for distribution given its highly controversial (and some say inflammatory) content. Still, it remains to be seen what success Fawstin might have with the comic through his own online means.
@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion
